Highlights from the St. Louis Public Library

784: Lucky Music

March 18, 2013

If you’re still feeling the luck of the Irish from yesterday’s St. Paddy’s Day festivities, why not continue the celebration with a selection of music from the St. Louis Public Library? Not only do we have a great selection of recorded and downloadable music, but, for all you musicians out there, we also have an amazing collection of scores. Like most of our printed materials, our collection of musical scores and sheet music goes back to the turn of the 20th century, so you will be sure to find some pretty deep cuts if you’re willing to dig. For example, “Irish Folk Songs” (cover pictured), published in 1897, includes songs like “The Cuckoo Madrigal”, “The Brave Irish Lad”, and “The Jug of Punch”.

Lisa Lehmann’s “Songs of Good Luck”, 1913, may not be traditional Irish music, but it is definitely related in spirit, and also has a charming cover illustration:

To find more sheet music, you can do an advanced search on our catalog. Enter your search query in the “word or phrase” field (“Irish Music” was used for the music featured here) and limit your results to “musical recordings and scores” in the “materials” field.

The results will display in reverse chronological order, so to find older scores and sheet music (as opposed to CDs, which will constitute the bulk of your results) go to the last page, and work your way backwards.

…and if you start early enough, you may have just enough time to perfect a couple of numbers before next year!